Weekend Routine?

[Carol]

Something I'd like to throw out for discussion...

Do you change your MA activity on your days off from work?

Or is what you do fairly steady regardless of what day it is?

Discuss...

 

[kalikg]

Hello,

My weekend is different. Sunday and Monday is my weekend with Sunday being the only day that my family can spend together as a family. So working out on Sunday is a "no-go" for me...taboo...I'd rather hang out with my wife and kids. Monday (my Sunday) I begin my weekly routine. That is, after I take my oldest daughter to school.

Being a small business owner, husband, and father, time is difficult to come by...so, my morning workouts are done at least twice a week with the ideal being five times a week. I try very hard not to get depressed if I miss my goal (this is also part of my training)!

My routine is to workout as if I am in class; opening salutation, basics, forms, anything I can think of that would be done in my class or that I would be tested on. If I feel spry, I'll add any additional sprints, calisthenics, medicine ball training that I think will help.

There are days when I focus on certain aspects of my art and forego the class structure...I think of these days as "intensive" days.

My regular class is held once a month (when I can afford the trip) in another state.

 

[Jai]

I work a really bad schedule. 12 hour days 6pm to 6am. I have every thursday and friday off, and i rotate every wedensday and every other weekend. so i work 5 days, 4 off, 3 on, 2 off then it starts over. Keeping some kind of normal routine even working out at home is very critical to me and my MA.

 

[Cirdan]

I train the five other days so I usually relax saturday and sunday. Perhaps doing some reading on the arts or a little slow Kata practice. There is also the occational weekend class where we will do things we usually don`t focus so much on; stickwork, stretching, tai chi etc. Weekend classes are less formal and we usually don`t wear the gi or at least exchange the jacket for a shirt.

 

[exile]

I try to do pretty much the same thing every day. There's a bit of time for balance/kicking drills, which is always the hard part because... well, because that's the hard part! And a bit of time for work on hyungs/kata, both practicing the forms (performing them) and thinking about what the forms are really encoding in the way of practical street self-defense (i.e., studying them). A bit of time for breaking. And a certain amount of reading/research, which includes time spent reading ongoing MT threads and initiating (or at least trying to initiate) my own.

As time has gone I, I find kihon-type line drills to be less and relevant to what I think of as `training the core' of TKD/karate. I think there's a virtue to doing flow drills, but it's not a crucial part of the activity. I try to visualize what it was that the people on Okinawa a century ago and earlier were doing, and keep that in mind. A lot of what they were up to would have been one-on-one combat training (note that I don't say sparring here, because that word has too many of the wrong connotations at this point in the history of the MAs) and it's hard to simulate that when you're training solo. So visualization is important, and actually is something that can be worked on and developed: vividly picturing your combat movements in the contexts of a real attack. I try to do that in connection with my `applied' kata performance, as per here.

All of this stuff I try to do every day, 7 days a week, for 40 minutes to an hour on the action side, and... impossible to say on the reading/research/studying side, but it's a lot! So it's not always possible to do everything every day...

 

[grydth]

With respect to MA, there's no typical day for me - I grab what time I can get whenever. Some work days I and another person do a quick work out on PM break. Most Sundays I have friends over late AM for an hour or two of Tai Chi/Qi Gong. In the Summer I may even get a few classes in.

It really varies.... if caught up on chores/kids visiting my ex/ bad weather.... I may get a lot done throughout the day, maybe 3 pleasing and relaxed sessions. Change those factors and I may be lucky to get one short form in just before midnight.

 

[arnisador]

When I was young and single...more martial arts on the weekend.

Now, with a family...usually less. One must prioritize!

 

[kidswarrior]

I've been thinking about this question since the OP first went up (must mean it's a pretty good question ). Couldn't come up with an easy answer (without sounding whiny to myself) and have decided it's because there are several variables that might play into how each of us sees this. In my case, these are: time in the arts, age, physical and emotional demands of ones full time work (or, whether MA is a person's work), and family.

So my answer is this: after 15 years in the arts, all during my 'middle' years (began at 42); after 18 years on a job that most people leave the first chance they get (or never take) due to it's nature; and with a family that suffers through tirelessly supporting me in my chosen field, I don't feel the need to work out every day. On the one hand, sometimes I'll go through all the techniques, all the forms, and review my teaching material. On the other hand, if it's been a week from hell, I may just settle for walking the dog as my 'workout'. Anything more at those times could easily lead to burn out, and then I'd lose one of my serious passions, the MA's.